As user reliance on computing devices has increased, applications designed for preventive maintenance have increased in importance. A typical computing device now includes numerous maintenance applications that run on a regular basis, including virus and malware scanners, disk defragmenters, and registry cleaners. In addition to maintenance software, many computing devices include applications designed to increase usability of the device, such as file or email indexing applications and software update programs. Each of these programs may require constant or intermittent access to a storage device included in the computing device.
Paradoxically, as the number of applications designed to improve usability increases, the user's quality of experience may be negatively affected. In particular, when multiple scanning programs are simultaneously running on the computing device, the user may experience slowdowns or may even be unable to use the device until the applications have completed execution.